Higher Education :
Buzz

Are you good at answering multiple choice questions and phoning a friend.

"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" — yes, that show is apparently still on the air — is scouting potential candidates in Baltimore for its game show, Mix 106.5 reports. Host Cedric the Entertainer will hold auditions in Towson Sept. 12.

"Contestant auditions consist of a timed multiple choice test and for those people who pass, an interview with one of the show’s producers," Mix 106.5 says. "Auditioners will be seen on a first-come, first-served basis and producers will audition as many people as they can throughout the day."

Next City, a public policy and current events website that explores urban issues, has highlighted the massive, $1.8 billion development in East Baltimore led by Johns Hopkins in a recent issue.

Though Hopkins has long been criticized for its relationship with the surrounding community, the university hopes that a new school opening in the fall can move the biopark and residential development forward. The school is embracing its role as a so-called "anchor institution" that can serve as a catalyst for growth in its surrounding neighborhoods.

"The latest redevelopment promise — a $1.8 billion, 10-years-in-the-making endeavor to raze 88 acres worth of abandoned blocks and rebuild the neighborhood with a Hopkins-partnered primary school as the centerpiece — has similarly grown entangled with racial tension and accusations of corruption," Next City writes. "But this time, a plan to both enroll students from the neighborhood and attract new people to the area means that the needs of Middle East may not get left behind."

Which former BmoreMedia publisher won a total of $31,601 on "Jeopardy?"

The correct answer is Sam Hopkins, a Baltimore resident and 2013 graduate of the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. He won the total over two days, May 29 and May 30.

The Prairie Village, Kansas, native gave a shout out to Kansas City barbeque on his second day. Meanwhile, the Twitterverse was buzzing about the multilingual Hopkins. @alliekmiller Tweeted the following: Ladies, there is a man named Sam Hopkins on #jeopardy right now. He speaks 11 languages. Start watching. #betterthanbachelorette.

JHU put out a news release on the grad's silver-screen appearance. The release also contains highlights from an essay that Hopkins wrote for the school's ONE magazine. In the piece, Hopkins recalls his trip to Bangalore, India and experience collecting vinyl records from around the world.

A four-year degree at Johns Hopkins University costs $222,000, but the hefty price tag may be worth it.

That's according to the 2013 College Education ROI Rankings, produced by PayScale. Going to the school offers students – and their parents — a 6.2 percent return on their investment. Johns Hopkins ranked No. 53 on the list. The salary and career website compared the median pay of a college's graduates versus students who only possessed a high school degree.

Also on the list were several other Maryland schools: Loyola University, Maryland; University of Maryland, College Park; University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Notre Dame of Maryland University; Towson University; and, the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Johns Hopkins University generally does well on U.S. rankings of the top colleges.

But how does it stack up against institutions of higher learning from around the world? Not bad. It ranks No. 19 in the Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings of the top 100 universities from around the globe. The University of Maryland, College Park also comes up on the list, at 95.

The British publication put Harvard, MIT and England's University of Cambridge in the top three.

The Times Higher Education says it determined its ranking through an "invitation-only survey of academic opinion."

University of Michigan professor David Harding is using storylines from "The Wire" to teach his students about public policy, USA Today writes. The HBO crime drama is set in Baltimore.

Titled "Urban Public Policy Through the Lens of HBO's The Wire," the class connects storylines in the HBO with real-life city challenges, such as housing, labor, health care, substance abuse and urban decay.

"It's a growing trend across the nation -- take some piece of pop culture, tie it to an academic subject and hope it grabs students' attention more than a standard academic class," USA Today writes.

Johns Hopkins University has won accolades for its world renowned academic studies in medicine, public policy and engineering.

The Baltimore school's writing program is also among the best, according to CollegeDegree.com. The site, in conjunction with USA Today College, placed Johns Hopkins No. 3 in its ranking of the ten best writing programs for college students.

"Their English department boasts a long history of producing well-received and distinguished writers," CollegeDegree.com writes about the Charles Village school. "While they do offer courses in creative writing, Johns Hopkins focuses much more on literary writing, critical analysis, and literature education to improve writing skills."

Hopkins came behind Emory University in Atlanta and Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is known for his largesse to his alma mater Johns Hopkins University. There is, after all, a public health school named after him.

But the New York Times has tallied up Bloomberg's contribution over the past four decades and says it totals $1.1 billion.

"That figure, kept quiet even as it transformed every corner of the university, makes Mr. Bloomberg the most generous living donor to any education institution in the United States, according to university officials and philanthropic tallies," the Times writes.

Though Bloomberg started out as an average student, he rose to prominence by the time he graduated, the article states.

A business school dean calls the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Music Director "a folk hero" in the most recent issue of Forbes magazine.

Doug Guthrie, dean of the George Washington University School of Business, got to know Marin Alsop because she was the first speaker in the school's Conversations on Creative Leadership series.

"She is a woman in a field dominated by men, but she is so much more," Guthrie writes in Forbes. "A visionary who understands the connection between ambition and achievement. A crusader who knows how music can transform lives. A leader who accepts the risk that comes with great rewards. A trailblazer who is as adept at the trail as the blazing."

Getting a four-year degree at Johns Hopkins University will set you back $231,280. That makes it one of the top 10 most expensive colleges, according to CNNMoney.com. Room and board for the 2012-2013 school year is $57,820, a 3.7 percent increase over the previous year.

Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y., New York University and Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, Calif., rounded out the top 3.

It's the second time this year that the Baltimore school got on the most expensive college list. Business Insider ranked it No. 7 on its list of 20 most expensive colleges.

Serving up lentil burgers and veggie deli "meats" has earned Towson University and the University of Maryland a spot on the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' (PETA) list of most vegan-friendly colleges.

PETA 2 — the arm of the animal-rights group that targets the younger crowd — nominated both schools. Voting for Round 1 continues until 5 p.m. Oct. 16 and winners will be announced Nov. 15.

PETA 2 determines who makes it to the next round based on four factors: quality vegan food options, the total number of votes, the enthusiasm demonstrated by nominated schools and feedback from campus students on their vegan dining options.

The University of New Hampshire, Cornell University and Alabama's Troy University are among the other nominated vegan-friendly schools.

Employing the famous maxim of 15th-century diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli, "the end justifies the means," may serve real estate and other professionals well.

Thanks according to the studies of Morgan State University Associate Professor Abdul Aziz, who developed a personality test to determine Machiavellian tendencies, the Wall Street Journal writes.

"A Machiavellian person, Prof. Aziz explains, is emotionally detached, prone to deceive and believes that the end justifies the means, even if it is not morally right," says the Journal. "Real-estate agents who exhibited more Machiavellian traits tended to see higher sales, meaning Machiavellian behavior and performance were found to be highly correlated," the paper writes.

The Park School of Baltimore graduate traveled roughly 400 miles on foot to Yale University where he was accepted, in order to follow through the promise he made in his admissions essay, according to the Baltimore Sun. "As I was writing essays, I thought about how I'd always wanted to do something like this," Acheson says.

"I figured if I put it in an essay, that would force me to follow through on my plan.” Acheson took on the Appalachian Trail, propelled by carbohydrate snacks and Google Maps.

We thought the drug-and-corruption laden city portrayed in the Wire was the only image New Yorkers had of Baltimore.

But that might change. The New York Times recently published a list of the top cities with the most college graduates and the ranking places Baltimore/Towson No. 13. Our neighbor Washington, D.C., topped the list. San Jose, Calif., Bridgeport, Conn., San Francisco and Madison, Wis., rounded out the top five.

The Times analyzed data from the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program to come up with the list. It also ran a companion article that says that cities that don't retain college graduates will be left behind.

"A small number of metro areas vacuum up a large number of college graduates, and the rest struggle to keep those they have," the article states.